A man identified as Amos Daniel has been arrested for allegedly murdering a woman believed to be his girlfriend in a hotel located in the Ayobo area of Lagos State.
The incident reportedly occurred on Thursday evening. Daniel had checked into the hotel around 5 p.m. with two friends, and a female later joined them.
By 10 p.m., guests and staff were drawn to a strange noise coming from the room. One of the hotel guests, who identified himself simply as Adio, recounted the moment to PUNCH on Saturday.
“I checked in on Wednesday, but on that fateful evening, I started hearing a strange sound from the room beside mine. I was so curious, and by the time I later stepped out, I noticed that someone else who heard the noise had alerted a security operative, who came and said he had heard the same noise. So, he knocked, but no one responded. Then, they decided to use the spare key to open the door, and that was when they found a lady lying in a pool of blood,” he said.
The discovery triggered panic in the hotel, prompting an immediate search for the occupants of the room, who had fled the scene. A staff member, who requested anonymity, said Daniel was eventually caught while attempting to escape.
“We noticed two out of the three guests had left before we discovered the body, so we felt the third one could still be around. That was when we began searching the premises and in the process saw him trying to run towards the gate. He was later apprehended,” the staffer said.
Daniel was reportedly beaten by those who caught him before police were alerted. “He confessed while he was being beaten that he had conspired with his two other friends to kill her for ritual purposes,” the source added.
The deceased was later identified as Endurance, a native of Akwa Ibom State.
Confirming the incident on Sunday, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said the case was reported at the Ayobo Police Station by the hotel manager.
According to him, “The manager of a hotel situated at Ayobo came to the station and reported that at about 1 pm on Thursday, one Amos Daniel (male), whose house address is unknown, booked a room in his hotel and checked in at about 5 pm together with his friends.
“However, at about 8 pm, while the complainant was fuelling the hotel generator, he suddenly heard a strange noise coming from Amos Daniel’s room. In a bid to inquire about the cause of the noise, he sighted the lifeless body of a female adult in a pool of her blood with various injuries inflicted on her by a suspected sharp object.
“Amos Daniel and his cohorts fled the scene. The manager pursued and apprehended Amos Daniel, during which a dagger suspected to have been used in committing the heinous crime fell from his body.”
He added that detectives immediately visited the scene, documented it with photographs, and discovered the victim had been stabbed multiple times in the stomach, head, and ribs.
“Consequent upon preliminary investigation, the following exhibits were recovered from the house and premises of Amos Daniel: UTC axe, cutlass, machete, jack knives, laptop, service jungle boot, local sponge, and a big pair of scissors.
“The corpse has been evacuated and deposited at Mainland General Hospital, Yaba mortuary for preservation and autopsy. Both the case file, exhibits, and the suspect have been transferred to SCID Yaba for discreet investigation,” Hundeyin stated.
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